Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Roy Green graduated in 1980 with an Applied Communications Diploma from Camosun College. In 1984 Green graduated with honours from the Emily Carr Institute of Art (now Emily Carr University, Vancouver, BC), and participated in the Writing Intensive program at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado in 1989. Based out of Victoria, BC, Green is a painter, performance artist, and poet. He has exhibited as a solo artist and in group exhibitions prolifically on Vancouver Island and the Lower mainland, as well as shown internationally. In addition to being the recipient of numerous BC Arts Council Grants, a Canada Council for the Arts award, and a City of Victoria Public Art Project award, Green’s work is housed in numerous private and public collections including Centre Des Arts, Baie-St. Paul, Quebec and The Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Ontario. ARTIST INFO: Green’s Polychrome Fine Art webpage: http://polychromefinearts.com/artistsb/green.html (Accessed December 27, 2016); Tumblr: http://roygreenart.blogspot.ca/ (Accessed December 27, 2016); Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roygreenart/?ref=page_internal (Accessed December 27, 2016); Blogspot: http://www.roygreensworld.tumblr.com/ (Accessed December 27, 2016)
ARTIST STATEMENT: Green’s Polychrome Fine Art webpage (http://polychromefinearts.com/artistsb/green.html Accessed December 27, 2016) describes the artist as “a self-taught painter [who] likens his work to channel-surfing with a paintbrush, incorporating found objects, symbols and text, chance and coincidence, spontaneity and improvisation into a form of urban folk-art.” Evident from the artist’s Tumblr (http://roygreenart.blogspot.ca/ Accessed December 27, 2016), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/roygreenart/?ref=page_internal Accessed December 27, 2016), and Blogspot pages (http://www.roygreensworld.tumblr.com/ Accessed December 27, 2016), Green enjoys incorporating colours, symbols, abstract elements, and animals into his work, often in a satirical, absurd, or surreal manner. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: The Guardian article, “Poem of the week: Gadji beri bimba by Hugo Ball” by Carol Rumens, published August 31, 2009 describes Hugo Ball’s performance – including costume and ideological motivations – captured in the iconic Cabaret Voltaire photograph (https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/aug/31/hugo-ball-gadji-... Accessed December 27, 2016). Additional information and links to resources about Ball and the Dada movement can be found on the Dada Companion (http://www.dada-companion.com/ball/ Accessed, December 27, 2016) and the University of Iowa Libraries International Dada Archive (http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/dadas/ball.htm and http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/index.html Accessed December 27, 2016). The 100th anniversary of the photo was commemorated by the Swiss Post in 2016 (https://www.post.ch/en/about-us/company/media/press-releases/2016/dadais... Accessed December 27, 2016). DESCRIPTION: Painting of Dada artist Hugo Ball (1875-1927). The image appears to be created using a well-known photograph (property of the Hugo Ball/Emmy Hennings Estate, Robert-Walser Archive, Zürich) of Ball from June 23, 1916 reciting his poetry at the Cabaret Voltaire (image of original photo available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Ball#/media/File:Hugo_Ball_Cabaret_Vo... Accessed December 27, 2016). Ball is pictured in a “cubist costume” (with blue and white striped conical hat, conical body and legs, large sheet-like cape with red-coloured tie, and large-fingered lobster-claw-like “gloves”). The words painted on the central abdominal area of Ball’s white garment appear to be an excerpt from Ball’s Dada poem “Gadji beri bimba.” The figure in the painting takes up the majority of the work’s painted surface and is presented on a black background. Various orbs, lines, and bird-like shapes surround the figure.
